even if you are only using if a few minutes- please! you still are pushing that thing around-most people (those naturally minded I know-loath strollers and wouldn't not want to deal with one and never would do one for a non-disabled child at this age)

seems far more about the parent not the child and certainly doesn't come off as a fun filled day but a mainstreaming of parenting, or the easy way out

breaks? must be a archaic idea - who really wants to see it all- the parent?

I've been to Disney. I not only didn't want to see it all - I didn't even want to be there. I hate Disney. My kids loved every freaking second of it.

so push on

can't imagine how the US is perceived as lazy

These seem a little contradictory.

I'm not American. I'm Canadian. In some ways, I am lazy - that's why I'd far rather press on and get all of us, and our Pacific Northwest conditioned selves, into somewhere with air conditioning, rather than take a so-called break in the heat. DS2 doesn't even know when he's overheating, so it's up to us to keep an eye on that.

But, you're probably right. Everybody who disagrees with you is lazy, and their children are going to be lazy, spoiled and suffer from major entitlement issues. It must be a tremendous burden to be the only one who really knows what's right for everyone.

I have no idea what the weight limit is on a Disney rental stroller, to be honest. I'd guess it's pretty high, as people pile them with bags and kids and all kinds of stuff. We frequently had two kids (dd1 was four, and ds2 was two), plus our bags and a few purchases, in ours.

I think a big part is the adults not wanting to slow down and take a break. The whole so much to do in so little time. Rush to use fast pass, rush to dinner, rush to meet up with others in your group, etc

My oldest has asked to sit in the stroller once, she had a headache and I had more I wanted to do..

Funny this child has never been a fan of strollers as a toddler.

Though for but a few hills, most of disneyworld is fairly level and I, as a average person, find stroller pushing like grocery cart pushing. Yes it is there, but no real work. My grandma actually asks to push as she likes the support of the stroller handles.

When my dd isn't ready to bounce up and do more after resting and having a snack or meal we head back to the hotel and have some peace. I understand the desire to do a ton of stuff because vacations are expensive, but for me that is not what vacation is all about.

See, that's fine, if it works for you. I find "going back to the hotel" and then back to the parks, etc. far more exhausting than just pressing on. It adds a lot of travel time.

And, resting to have a snack or a meal means either sitting outside in the heat, or continuing on until you find a restaurant or other air conditioned place to sit down. I wouldn't be ready to bounce up after sitting in the heat, and if we have to keep moving, then why not let them sit in the stroller until we reach the restaurant?

You know, if the 8 year old was tired, and the parents hopped on a bus or monorail back to their hotel, nobody would bat an eyelash. But, the kids would probably be sitting down on the bus/monorail. So, what's the real issue? That people have a problem with the fact that it's a stroller? Strollers are tools. Tools should be used to make the "work" (in this case, navigating the group around Disneyland/Disneyworld) easier or more efficient. If this particular tool doesn't work for you, fine - that doesn't mean it doesn't work for someone else.

I do all my vacuuming with the hose, not the powerhead. I don't like using the powerhead, for various reasons. DS1 uses the powerhead. That doesn't make either of us lazy or entitled or whatver other slam someone wants to throw at someone else. It just means we do things differently, and different things work for me than for him. The same applies to getting around with our kids. Some kids do well with long walks. Some kids are okay in the heat. Some kids don't do well with long walks. Some kids don't do well in the heat. Find the tool(s) that works for you, and don't worry about what other people think about it.

You going to push the 8 yr old? Dude I don't care if an 8 yr old rides in a stroller but imagine pushing that kid around. I would be a big old beast within 20 minutes and would need to be pushed around myself.

I guess it depends on the 8yo. My 7yo is the same weight as some 3 and 4 year olds I know. I doubt he's going to be much heavier than 55-60lbs. next year.

I know a 5 year old that won't even get in a stroller and have recently been to Disney- I know many girls 7 & 8 and we mentioned this to them and they laughed that children actually want to be pushed at that age.

First I think the parent is not getting a vacation/fun day pushing and second I see no need for it- take a break.

It's not the end of world - take your time, enjoy it but it's not some kind of race to see it all.

We're not talking about the whole day. We're talking about a few minutes here and there. That certainly isn't going to ruin anyone's vacation. My 7yo would probably laugh and say that there is no way he would want to use a stroller for a day at an amusement park, but I can tell you that it definitely looked appealing to him a few months ago.

Sometimes it IS a race. For a family at a Disney park, one day = HUNDREDS of dollars, plus every extra day is another $100-300 in a hotel.

I guess Disney parks should only be for neurotypical, perfectly behaved, health-issue free children who have parents who can spend extra money to make sure everyone has time to sit when they need to rest. That's realistic.

See, that's fine, if it works for you. I find "going back to the hotel" and then back to the parks, etc. far more exhausting than just pressing on. It adds a lot of travel time.

And, resting to have a snack or a meal means either sitting outside in the heat, or continuing on until you find a restaurant or other air conditioned place to sit down. I wouldn't be ready to bounce up after sitting in the heat, and if we have to keep moving, then why not let them sit in the stroller until we reach the restaurant?

We don't go out again after we return to the hotel and I don't get bothered by heat so I don't have to push MT dd to ride in a stroller in order for us to have a fun vacation that feels worthwhile. My mom was highly sensitive to heat and made vacations miserable so I understand needing to do whatever you can to not ruin the whole trip. We had many miserable vacations and that is why I take a different viewpoint on the purpose of vacation than the one she had.

Just to address one little thing... we only went for one day, we aren't wealthy folks, we work for a non-profit and it was only the second trip since having children.

We didn't feel worn out or exhausted by the end. And we all walked the whole day. It was actually pretty pleasant. And as I said, we learned from past expereince that strollers really weigh us down and make it harder on our family.

I know that people do use things to rest, we gladly took rides to rest our feet... I don't think the issue is about resting... or riding, or if that is "bad"

For us issue is that if our kids are ABLE we think they should do what is age and ability appropriate for them.

I was very careful not to seem judgemental about that... because as I stated we believe that this is something totally negotiable for parents to decide... I just shared why WE chose NOT too. No harm, no need to foul. I closed with the below...

And I DO know that others have reason for the methods they practice in their family.

I think "methods" are the negotiables of parenting.

"Principles" are things like "It is right to educate, feed and love" our kids. The non-negotiables.

"Methods" are how we go about achieving the "principles"... and those vary from family to family.

Hope our thought process is helpful, if it isn't toss it out practice what is beneficial for you and your child.

If you feel judged you might want to evaluate if you are personally seeing judgement where it doesn't exhist.

Oh how I love MDC. Only here can a thread like this get totally out of control. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer to this. If I had the energy to push my kid, and he was legitimately tired and needing a break, I probably would. If I was too tired myself of thought he was doing ok, I wouldn't. I'm surprised by how many really strong opinions there are on this.

Serenbat-- I'm curious...most naturally minded parents I know loathe other people judging what's right for their kids even more than they loathe strollers. Also, most naturally minded parents I know believe in meeting their kids needs more than they believe in the making arbitrary rules about things like strollers. A kid doesn't have to have special needs to benefit from a short break in a stroller and if that works for mom and kid, I'm surprised it's so offensive to you.

there are stroller rentals at zoo not far from me, class trips come with Kindies (5+) and they even don't ride in strollers, neither do the older one-capable/able, they walk

Also, how do you know so much about what goes on in mainstream parenting boards anyhow if youre so opposed to all things mainstream? It's strange to me that there are people who seem to judge all parenting choices based solely on whether the practice is more common in natural parenting circles or mainstream parenting circles.

I think it boils down to whether you think your child needs the break or not. I know kids that would throw a fit just because they where being lazy, but i also know that kids can get genuinely exhausted, or their feet hurt, or whatever. My 5 year old stayed almost the entire time in a Disney stroller, granted she has medical conditions, BUT i could not imagine not using one, even if its just to help carry all of the stuff, and have somewhere to keep it all.....cups, snacks, our day bag......and she is still on a nap schedule so for our benefit she took a nap almost every day. We could push the stroller with one hand, and it NEVER got in the way or made walking around any more difficult. We could also get through crowds much easier, people just walk right into you at times. Heck, even i was tempted to take a little "break", i saw more than a few adults, and teens in those things. After day 3 our feet where sore it took a lot to keep us going. To each their own i say, if your kids don't need a stroller, great, if they do, so what? I'm glad we had ours.

We don't go out again after we return to the hotel and I don't get bothered by heat so I don't have to push MT dd to ride in a stroller in order for us to have a fun vacation that feels worthwhile. My mom was highly sensitive to heat and made vacations miserable so I understand needing to do whatever you can to not ruin the whole trip. We had many miserable vacations and that is why I take a different viewpoint on the purpose of vacation than the one she had.

Fair enough. But, the whole "trying to see everything" isn't just about parents. If we have one day in a particular theme park, and ds1 wants to see one thing, and dd1 wants to see somethign else, and ds2 and dd2 each want to see another thing, we're going to have a way more miserable vacation by going "okay - you three have seen your thing, but so-and-so wants a ride in the stroller for a bit, so we're going back to the hotel, and you (number four) don't get to see yours" than we are if we stick an older kid in a stroller for ten minutes.

Actually, thinking back...I seem to recall ds1 hopping into ours for a few minutes at one point. Of course, he was mostly just kidding around...but he was 14.

Pushing her has been relatively easy - it's only 10 to 15 minutes at a time. As I said in the previous post, her cousin's stroller is a Maclaren Techno XLR. It's a great stroller.

Also, the upside of this chore (which seems to be one of the main points of contention) has been overlooked, so I'll quote it again here:

Quote:

Originally Posted by EmilyD

Additionally, it's 10 minutes where I can recharge mentally myself. She's seated, buckled in, and not going anywhere until my sister or I let her out, so I can take a quick break from proactively supervising her. Which is a godsend by the way!

Admittedly this upside is only possible because the Maclaren has such a great harness, so it's not really an upside if the stroller being used is easy to get out of.

Also, although she's about 8 and a half years old, she is below the 65lb weight limit.

As the parent of a disabled 7 yr old over 50 lbs who sometimes rides in a double stroller with her 25 lb 2 yr old sister, if you have a halfway decent stroller, you really don't feel the additional weight unless it's steep uphill terrain. We just have the sit and stand and believe me, I'm not one for exercising, but I easily push that thing with both of them, even loaded down with luggage at times. It's not as big of a deal as some are making it out to be. We don't even get weird looks.

How did this thread get so big??? Never been to Disney World, but Disneyland is huge and exhausting. I think some of the points made about going slower, taking a break, all are very wise. So is just pushing the 8yo around.

But has anyone suggested taking turns pushing? I might ask when it would be *my* turn to get pushed in the stroller? Squash in there and hope my ass doesn't get stuck (I'm assuming it's one of those honking plastic ones?) and see if the girls couldn't push me a ways. If they can't, maybe it's time for a frozen banana pop in the shade. Is there still shade at those places? Tom Sawyer's Island was always a nice place.....

Too big. Just too impossibly big for any normal person.

"Let me see you stripped down to the bone. Let me hear you speaking just for me."

We didn't use a stroller for our then 4-year-old, and regretted it. The younger one is 3 and might not get tired, but it would be a good way to make sure we didn't lose her.

My 10-yr-old would be embarrassed to ride in a stroller and would have at 8 as well, but I wouldn't judge about it at Dland or Dworld. It is a particularly difficult and stressful (and fun of course!) place for kids. I don't fight over small things and I would call this a small thing and just take turns with Dh pushing the stroller.

We went to Disneyland when the kids were 4 y.o. and 8 y.o. I'd dispensed with the stroller when the youngest was a little older than 3, simply because that's what works best for me. I found pushing a stroller around was a hassle, all the years we used it. There was no fear of dragging the kids around disneyland longer than they could handle, as my feet get tired long before theirs do. So we took frequent breaks.

Note, this was what was easiest for me and my family. I noticed immediately there were plenty of bigger kids in strollers at Disneyland. I wondered sometimes if I was being lazy for not bothering to wrangle the stroller for the 4 y.o. So, yeah, I didn't think the stroller-pushing parents were lazy.

I haven't read the other responses and I realize it was days ago, and is probably a moot point.

But we just did DW with a 5, 7 and 9 year old. *I* wanted to have a stroller to sit in. We walked miles and miles. We didn't do a stroller the first day, and then did a double stroller for the rest of the days. Best money I ever spent. The rental strollers at Disney are super easy to push, even with 100 lbs of kid and stuff piled into them. My 9 year old was able to push her siblings by herself.

I spent entirely too much money taking the kids there to have my children too exhausted to go back the next day. I'd not side-eye anyone who got a stroller for any kid younger than...like 10.

I'd let an 8 year old ride in a stroller. I walked almost 20 miles a day at WDW and I think it's insane to expect an 8 year old to walk even half that. WDW is expensive, and if the kid can take breaks, you can get to everything faster because they wont be lagging behind. It's a cost issue at some point for me. Id wizz them all over the park in a stroller if I thought we could get more rides in that way

I grew up going to WDW almost every summer (was sent to relatives in FL each summer). My aunt always rented a stroller, even when I was 10 (I was shrimpy, my 3 years younger cousin was bigger than me starting from when I was 7). There were no hand held games during those dark ages, so we still had fun pushing each other/getting a ride and looking at everything. There are tons of pictures of her and I after we stuffed ourselves into it at the same time (they just had these big one-person blue things back then) and had totally sacked out curled up around each other. The pictures are cute, and I'm sure it kept my aunt and uncle sane, and it turned neither my cousin nor myself into soulless uncreative lazy people.

My cousin has never been fat, so don't worry, your kids only have a 50 percent chance of catching the fats if you dare to rent them a stroller at WDW for your rare vacation. :P

When you do not ride in a stroller every day, it might seem like a novelty. I bet that is part of the reason why the OP's kid is asking. Just let her ride in it for a few minutes if she's asked for pete's sake. Probably she'll get bored (unless she's genuinely tired) and then you don't have to worry about it.

Who cares what other ignorant people might think if they bother to notice your child and correctly guess their age? You have a ton of people gasping over the internet because you're taking your family to a den of rampant consumerism and creative soul killing characters, too. Ignore them. Let your kid try it if she wants to. Nobody cares or notices what your kids are doing at WDW unless they're throwing a screaming tantrum, throwing up over the side of the boat during the Viking boat ride, or peeing in the fountain (saw that in the line at Small World the last time we were at WDL actually!) and even then it's only momentary because they'll be in good company.